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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: FW: RFC: kspread toolbar simplification
From:       Karl Ove Hufthammer <karl () huftis ! org>
Date:       2005-02-04 18:49:17
Message-ID: Xns95F3C9A2863BBhuftis () ID-99504 ! news ! uni-berlin ! de
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Harijs Buss <hbush@apollo.lv> wrote in
news:200502041315.52037.hbush@apollo.lv:

> On Friday 04 February 2005 12:28, Ariya Hidayat rakstija:
>
>> For KOffice 1.4, I'd like to proprose the following
>> simplification of KSpread's toolbar. [...]
>> Of course, this based on my (limited) experience and
>> observation, so feel free to disagree.
>
> I sometimes wonder - do you guys have any real requests from
> real life users _requiring_ such changes?  Or at least results
> of some decent research showing statistically significant,
> undoubtful necessity to make such changes?

I don't have any research, but feel the *one important reason* for
limiting the number of icons (generally, not just for KSpread) is:

   To make the toolbars fit when using icon labels.

Generally, icon labels ('Text under icons') are most useful for
newbies (more experienced users will either use keyboard
shortcuts, know what each icon does, or just read the tooltips).

Unfortunately, many toolbars (*cough* Konqueror *cough*) have way
to many (seldomly used) icons, which simply won't fit when using
this feature (which can be enabled globally, BTW (though not from
the icon category in kcontrol, curiously)).

One usability guideline to keep in mind might be: All toolbars
should preferably not have more icons than will fit when the 'Text
under icons' feature is used (in a maximised application window,
and with a 'reasonable' screen resolution and font size).

-- 
Karl Ove Hufthammer

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